Zhores Alferov Professor, Ioffe Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences

Zhores Ivanovich ALFEROV was born in Vitebsk, Byelorussia, USSR on March 15, 1930. In 1947, he graduated from high school (Minsk, Byelorussia) and in 1952, he graduated from the Department of Electronics of V.I. Ulyanov (Lenin) Electrotechnical Institute in Leningrad. Since 1953 until now he has been a member of the Scientific staff of the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences where he consequently held the following positions: junior scientist (1953- 1964), senior scientist (1964-1967), Head of Laboratory (1967-1987), Director of the Institute (1987 - 2003), Scientific Director of the Institute (2003 -2006), Scientific Director of the Center of Nanoheterostructure's Physics of the Institute (2006 - present), Chairman of the St. Petersburg Physics and Technology Center for Research and Educational of the RAS (2004 - present).

He received two scientific degrees: a candidate of science in technology in 1961 and a doctor of science in physics and mathematics in 1970 - both from Ioffe Institute. In 1970-1971 he spent 6 months as a visiting scientist at the University of Illinois, USA. Since 1962 he has been working in the area of III-V semiconductor heterostructures. His outstanding contributions to physics and technology of III-V semiconductor heterostructures, especially injection properties, development of lasers, solar cells, LED's, epitaxy processes have been led to the creation of modern Heterostructure Physics and Electronics.

For his achievements in this area Prof. Zh.I. Alferov was honored with many Soviet, Russian and International awards, and honorary memberships. In 1989 Zh.I. Alferov was elected the Chairman of the Leningrad Science Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1990 Zh.I. Alferov was elected a Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, then Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the "Technical Physics Letters" journal.

Most important Awards:

Franklin Institute Ballantyne Medal (USA, 1971); Lenin Prize (USSR, 1972); Hewlett-Paccard Europhysics Prize (1978); State Prize (USSR, 1984); Award & Heinrich Welker Medal of the International Symposium on GaAs and Related compounds (1987); A.P. Karpinskii Prize (FRG, 1989); A.F. Ioffe Prize (Russian Academy of Sciences, 1996); Demidov Prize (Russian Federation, 1999); A.S. Popov Medal (Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000); Nick Holonyak Jr. Award (Optical Society of America, 2000); Nobel Prize (Sweden, 2000), Kyoto Prize (Inamori Foundation, Japan, 2001); State Prize (Russian Federation, 2001); V.I. Vernadskiy Award (NAS Ukraine, 2001); Golden Plate Award (Academy of Achievement, U.S.A., 2002); Golden Medal of the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE, 2002); Global Energy Prize (Russian Federation, 2005).

Most important memberships:

Zh.I. Alferov is a full member (Academician) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1979); Life Fellow of the Franklin Institute (U.S.A., 1971); Honorary Professor of the Havana University (1987); Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences of GDR (1987); Foreign Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1988); Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Engineering (U.S.A., 1990) and Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (U.S.A., 1990); Foreign Member of the Byelorussian Academy of Sciences (1995); Honorary Foreign Member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (1995); Honorary Doctor of the Kurchatov Institute (Moscow, 1998); Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences (Ukraine, 2000); Honorary Member of the National Academy of Sciences (Moldova, 2000); Fellow and Chartered Physicist of the Institute of Physics (Great Britain, 2000); ); Doctor Honoris Causa (Moscow State University, 2001); Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain, 2001); Foreign Member of the Spain Engineering Academy (2001); Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Education (Moscow, 2001); Honorary Fellowship of the Institute of Physics (Singapore, 2001); Honorary Doctor of the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Japan, 2002); Honorary Professorship at Nanjing University (China, 2002); Doctor Honoris Cousa of the Plovdiv University (Bulgaria, 2002); Foreign Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Bulgaria, 2002); Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidad Nacinal de Engenieria (Peru, 2002); ); Doctor Honoris Causa by the Pedagogico San Marcos (Peru, 2002); Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Turku (Finland, 2003); Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences (Lithuania, 2003); Honorary Doctor of the NTUU "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute" (Ukraine, 2004); Honorary Professor of the San Cristobel University (Venezuela, 2004); Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences (Azerbaijan, 2004); Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences (Accademia Nazionale Delle Scienze detta dei XL) known as the Forty (Roma, Italy, 2005); Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences (Republic of Kazakhstan, 2005); Honorary Professor of the State University of Ul'yanovsk (2005); Honorary Doctor of the State Technical University of Archangel'sk (2006); Doctor Honoris Cousa of the University (Cuba, 2006); Doctor of Science Honoris Cousa of the University of St. Andrews (Scotland, 2006); Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws of the University of Dundee (Scotland, 2006); Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Oulu (Finland, 2006); Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences (Cuba, 2006); Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences(China, 2007); Honorary Doctor of the Doneck National University (Ukraine, 2007); Honorary Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Salzburg, 2007); . Doctor Honoris Causa by the Tampere University of Technology (Finland, 2007); .Honorary Doctor of the State University of Novosibirsk (2007).

Eponymous asteroid is named after Zhores Alferov (2001).

He is a Member of the Committee of Science and Education of the State Duma (1995 - present).Zh.I. Alferov has 4 books, more than 500 scientific publications and 50 Inventions in Semiconductor Technology.